Steve Stricker says older LIV stars would draw interest on the PGA Tour Champions—but he’s conflicted because LIV players’ departure brought rules and “probably consequences” that could follow them onto the senior circuit.
The idea sounds almost too good for the PGA Tour Champions to ignore: aging LIV stars showing up on a tour built for players over 50. But for Steve Stricker, the question isn’t just whether those names would be crowd-pleasing.
It’s what comes after the welcome.
Stricker, 59, is one of the tour’s defining figures. He’s won 18 times on the PGA Tour Champions, including seven senior major titles. He also captained the U.S. Ryder Cup team to a victory in 2021 and has 12 PGA Tour wins in his career. Now he’s the player-host of the PGA Tour Champions’ American Family Insurance Championship in Wisconsin—meaning his answer doesn’t live only in theory.
Last week, Stricker weighed in on whether LIV pros should be allowed to join the senior circuit in an interview with Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He started with the obvious appeal. Adding older LIV stars, he said, would be a boost.
“Sure, to have the guys that are 50 now, or close to it, like Lee Westwood, [Ian] Poulter, Pat Perez, some other guys [Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson], they would be hits here on the Champions Tour. This tour could use that,” Stricker said.
He also made clear why he thinks the tour would benefit from that kind of draw. “There’s two ways of looking at it, right?” he said, framing the issue as a choice between what the Champions Tour could gain and what the players may carry with them from their LIV decisions.
The second way of looking at it was less comfortable. Stricker pointed to a simple fact: they already left.
“They did leave,” he said. “And I think each case is going to be taken differently from what I understand. I really don’t know.”
That uncertainty extends to the event side as well. As host of the AmFam Championship, Stricker said he would love to book LIV names because it would help his tournament.
“It would only help our event,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have Poulter and Westwood and Pat Perez and some other guys there, too. It would only help our event, you know?”
Then he stepped into the part that sounded like experience and caution at the same time: “But I also know that there are probably consequences for them if they want to come back.”
Among the LIV players Stricker mentioned, only two have started the pathway toward the PGA Tour Champions—Perez and Henrik Stenson.
Pat Perez is now 50 and has designs on playing the Champions Tour. In January, the PGA Tour confirmed that Perez had been reinstated as a Tour member. Still, he was not allowed to play in events this season because he served a suspension. The Tour did not reveal any other consequences Perez faced at the time. telling Sports Illustrated. “the PGA Tour does not comment on disciplinary matters.”.
Even with those limits, Perez remains eligible to play in Senior Tour majors not run by the PGA Tour, including the 2026 Senior PGA Championship, which he played in April.
Henrik Stenson’s route is similar in timing, but different in details. Stenson played in the Senior PGA Championship this spring. He has said his suspension ends in August, and after that he will play on the PGA Tour Champions.
Stricker’s conflict, then, isn’t about whether older LIV stars could compete. It’s about whether the senior circuit—owned and operated by the PGA Tour, with the PGA Tour’s punishments and restrictions for LIV players extending to the senior circuit as well—can absorb them cleanly.
In his telling, the appeal is immediate. The consequences are the question that lingers.
Steve Stricker LIV Golf PGA Tour Champions Lee Westwood Ian Poulter Pat Perez Phil Mickelson Henrik Stenson American Family Insurance Championship suspension reinstated
They would be hits, so just let them in already lol.
I don’t get why he’s “conflicted” if they’re good players. Like money in the stands fixes everything? But then he says consequences so now I’m confused.
So basically Steve Stricker is mad at LIV for “rules” and consequences and thinks it’ll follow them to the seniors… but wouldn’t the PGA Tour Champions already have rules? Feels like he’s just repeating stuff he heard. Also Lee Westwood and Poulter are old news, people already know them.
If LIV guys come over, are they gonna get treated different or like stripped of something? I heard there were like suspensions or whatever but now it’s “probably consequences” which sounds vague. Stricker saying it could “use that” is funny because the whole golf world acts like TV ratings are the only rule that matters.